Free Republic

Germany's agressive and reckless expansion of wind and solar power has come with a hefty pricetag for consumers, and the costs often fall disproportionately on the poor. Government advisors are calling for a completely new start. If you want to do something big, you have to start small. That's something German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier knows all too well. The politician, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has put together a manual of practical tips on how everyone can make small, everyday contributions to the shift away from nuclear power and toward green energy. The so-called Energiewende,...

ll happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," thus wrote Leo Tolstoy in this epic novel about faithlessness, Anna Karenina. And so it goes with the presidency of Barack Obama. The mistake many commentators have made was in expecting that the unhappy presidency of Barack Obama would resemble the unhappy presidency of Jimmy Carter, just because they are both liberals. I’m reminded of this as I look at the PMI figures for August. Whereas Carter struggled with high inflation and unemployment, Obama struggles with sluggish economic growth and high employment underutilization. “U.S. manufacturing activity...

The National Salvation Front, a coalition of pro-democratic and secular parties in Egypt, set out its objections to remarks made by President Barack Obama Thursday on the escalating violence in Egypt. Led by Ahmed Said of the Free Egyptians Party, the group issued the following letter: "Like most Egyptians, we listened with attention to your statement on Egypt's latest developments. As representatives of the non-Islamic political forces in Egypt, we believe in the same fundamental values on which the U.S. was founded. Be we also have 7,000 years of civilization and history that give us a special identity that we...

Further evidence is surfacing that, far from having enhanced its reputation in the eyes of the people of Gaza, Hamas has been shown up as brutal thugs to their own people but cowards who run away when confronted by a proper army. The Jerusalem Post reports: From the perspective of the people of Gaza, Hamas simply abandoned the arena and fled into the crowded neighborhoods. Once there, since the second day of the campaign, Hamas fighters have hurriedly shed their uniforms. Many of them simply deserted and returned to their families, taking their guns with them. In some locations, Hamas...

RAMALLAH: After nearly two weeks of showing a united front in the face of Israel’s war in Gaza, some Palestinians are starting to slam Hamas for dragging its feet on a truce as the death toll mounts. With Hamas maintaining a tight grip on the Gaza Strip, most of the critical voices are coming from the rival Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, whose forces the Islamists routed from the coastal enclave in June 2007. Those close to the Fatah party of moderate president Mahmoud Abbas accuse Hamas of trying to extract political gains from the Gaza offensive all the...

A gun battle between Hamas and an Al Qaeda-inspired group that left about 30 dead last week is a sign of a growing movement inside the impoverished territory. RAFAH, GAZA STRIP - Two years after its takeover of the Gaza strip, Hamas has faced down its greatest challenger: A militant, Al Qaeda-inspired organization that says Hamas is not Islamic enough. Last Friday, Hamas forces and the Jund Ansar Allah (Soldier of God) movement fought a day-long gun and artillery battle that killed about 30 in the southern Gaza town of Rafah after the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa,...

Barack Obama sacks adviser over talks with Hamas Barack Obama had criticised former President Jimmy Carter for holding direct talks with Hamas Tom Baldwin in Washington One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed today that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas - prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him. Robert Malley told The Times he had regularly been in contact with Hamas, which controls Gaza but is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation. Such talks, he stressed, were related to his work for a conflict resolution...

Ex-U.S. President Carter plans to visit North Korea - report July 29, 2013 - 05:15 SEOUL (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is planning to visit North Korea soon to try to win the release of a U.S. citizen held for committing crimes against the reclusive state, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday. Carter has made contact with the North to arrange for the visit, and he is likely to make the trip in a personal capacity to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, the U.S. citizen, a source in Washington was quoted as saying by Yonhap....

The White House confirmed on Monday that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is traveling to North Korea, but sought to distance itself from his visit, calling it a “private trip.” … Carter had previously announced that he was planning on traveling to North Korea in an effort to secure the release of American citizen Kenneth Bae, who is being held by the regime. …

President H.W. Bush isn’t the only former president coming out of retirement lately. On Tuesday, Jimmy Carter weighed in on one of the most explosive trials in recent memory, expressing his satisfaction with the jury’s verdict that 29-year-old George Zimmerman was not guilty (via USA Today): Former president Jimmy Carter said the jury in the George Zimmerman trial "made the right decision" and agrees with President Obama that Americans should respect its judgment. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted last Saturday in the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. Carter, the nation's 39th president, made his comments about...

Jimmy Carter says the jury made the right call in finding George Zimmerman not guilty. “I think the jury made the right decision based on the evidence presented, because the prosecution inadvertently set the standard so high that the jury had to be convinced that it was a deliberate act by Zimmerman, that he was not at all defending himself,” Carter told Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA-TV.

I might be wrong but isn't Jimmy Carter so WRONG on just about everything that he's the reason the saying "even a broken clock is right twice a day" got coined?Now he's got George Zimmerman's back and up is...like...down now...P.S. I apologize for insulting broken clocks.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Former President Jimmy Carter said on June 28 that both Christian and Islamic religious leaders share the blame for mistreating women across the world. During an international conference on women and religion, Carter’s examples of religious authorities continuing doctrines of male superiority included the Catholic Church’s practice of banning women from the priesthood and some African cultures’ mutilation of the genitalia of young girls. Describing these doctrines as theologically indefensible, Carter said they contribute to an environment in which political leaders passively accept violence against women, sex-trafficking, and inequality in the workplace. “There is a great aversion among men leaders...

(CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said embattled celebrity chef Paula Deen should be forgiven, arguing that while there's no condoning the racial slurs she uttered, the well-known personality has been candid and apologetic.

ATLANTA — Former U.S. President JimmyCarter says religious leaders, including those in Christianity and Islam, share the blame for mistreatment of women across the world. The human rights activist said Friday religious authorities perpetuate misguided doctrines of male superiority, from the Catholic Church forbidding women from becoming priests to some African cultures mutilating the genitals of young girls. Carter said the doctrines, which he described as theologically indefensible, contribute to a political, social and economic structure where political leaders passively accept violence against women, a worldwide sex slave trade and inequality in the workplace and classroom.

Carter: World Religions Perpetuate Women's Plight BILL BARROW ATLANTA — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says religious leaders, including those in Christianity and Islam, share the blame for mistreatment of women across the world. The human rights activist said Friday religious authorities perpetuate misguided doctrines of male superiority, from the Catholic Church forbidding women from becoming priests to some African cultures mutilating the genitals of young girls. Carter said the doctrines, which he described as theologically indefensible, contribute to a political, social and economic structure where political leaders passively accept violence against women, a worldwide sex slave trade and inequality...

Bad enough that James Earl Carter, Jr. is the worst president this country has had not named James Buchanan or Barack Obama, but he is also an anti-Catholic bigot as his latest mind droppings amply demonstrate: Former US President Jimmy Carter has disclosed that he had angry exchanges with Pope John Paul II about liberation theology and about the ordination of women. The former president said that he complained to the Pontiff about the Church’s “perpetuation of the subservience of women” while Blessed John Paul II was visiting the US in 1978, and “there was more harshness when we turned...

It’s not news when irrelevant people spout irrational opinions, because it happens nearly all the time, but hey – it’s been a slow day.From Swampland: Let’s get right to it. This week the Carter Center’s Mobilizing Faith for Women conference will ask the question, “Can religion be a force for women’s rights instead of a source of women’s oppression?” What’s your answer?Well, religion can be, and I think there’s a slow, very slow, move around the world to give women equal rights in the eyes of God. What has been the case for many centuries is that the great religions,...

Thirty years ago, the old deal that held US society together started to unwind, with social cohesion sacrificed to greed. Was it an inevitable process – or was it engineered by self-interested elites? In or around 1978, America's character changed. For almost half a century, the United States had been a relatively egalitarian, secure, middle-class democracy, with structures in place that supported the aspirations of ordinary people. You might call it the period of the Roosevelt Republic. Wars, strikes, racial tensions and youth rebellion all roiled national life, but a basic deal among Americans still held, in belief if not...

Former President Jimmy Carter is spearheading an effort to convince the U.S. to weaken sanctions on terrorist groups so that peace organizations can legally work with them. In a petition to Secretary of State John Kerry delivered Thursday, Carter and other foreign policy experts ask Kerry to exempt peace groups from policies that make it a crime to offer negotiation training and humanitarian law classes to terror groups. “The Secretary of State can, and should, exempt peacebuilding activities from this counterproductive application of the law,” says the petition. “Doing so would open the door for professional peacebuilders to fully engage...